Chapter 18 - CHAPTER 16. SHUT YOUR MOUTH

‘This… How could this be?’

Rosemond’s face after tasting the steak, hardened immediately. She chewed the steak a few more times to see if she had tasted it wrong. But thinking that way did not mean the beef steak would taste like pork. She put another piece in her mouth again with an unbelievable expression. It was still the flavor of beef.

She judged the situation with a taken aback expression. Yes, maybe the beef steak haad only come to herself, or maybe the beef steaks and pork steaks were mixed in equally and served to the guests. However, to make such a hypothesis, the expressions of the ladies who tasted the steaks seemed satisfied.

“Oh, my Your Majesty, the steak tastes quite amazing. I say I really didn’t know the Marvinus cows would be so delicious.”

“I’m glad that it agrees with your taste. Does it agree with you Duchess of Verica?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. Thank you for caring for us. I haven’t eaten a steak such as this for a long time.”

So, in this situation, everyone was eating the beef steak. It was not the pork steak she had prepared. Rosemond’s face turned white as she was shocked at her expectations going awry. Patrizia, seeing this, asked Rosemond with a puzzled look, “Baroness Phelps, what’s wrong? Your complexion does not look good.”

“Ah… My stomach feels a little bad. I am sorry, Your Majesty.”

When Rosemond struggled to give an excuse, Patrizia gave a generous face as she advised.

“Oh, dear. That’s a shame. Then what do you think about going outside and getting a little bit of the night air? When you come back, your insides should definitely feel better.”

“…Then please excuse me.”

As much as possible, Rosemond tried not to show the amount of frustration on her face, calmly got out of the room. Patrizia stared at this with a strange look in her eyes, then soon focused her attention back to the noblewomen and the meal.

Meanwhile, Rosemond stepped out and slammed her feet down out of frustration over things going wrong.

“What in the world, what in the world?!”

She asked Glara with an angry expression, who had followed her outside.

“What in the world is this? Why did it end up like this?”

“My, my Lady… I am not sure. I’m sure I have done everything as directed by you. I also saw with my own eyes that the beef was replaced with the pork.”

Glara felt it was really unfair. Everything Rosemond ordered she had made sure to confirm to the end. Again this principle had not been broken. She had clearly confirmed that the beef was secretly replaced with pork in the kitchen. But then why in the world…?

Glara asked Rosemond, looking as if she was begging to be trusted, claiming her innocence.

“It’s really unfair my Lady. You know me. Why would I do anything you have directed so casually. I’m sure … I’m sure …”

“So then why in the world is it wrong, huh? Are you saying someone, during that short period of time, switch the pork back to beef?”

“Indeed.”

At the moment, both Rosemond and Glara were terrified and stopped talking at the voice of a third party. As they turned their heads toward the voice, the expressionless Patrizia was slowly approaching where they were. Rosemond spread her shoulders confidently without any sign of shrinking at her appearance.

‘Since it had already come to this, so be it.’

“Why are you coming out, Your Majesty? Instead of entertaining the noblewomen of Christa.”

“I told them that there was something I had to take care of briefly. I won’t be staying long anyway. ”

“Then you can just keep going to take care of whatever it is.”

She laughed ridiculously and spoke to Patrizia, and Patrizia laughed as well as she looked at her expression. The smile that did not explain anything, however, soon turned into madness.

SLAP!

On the night of the full moon, the harsh friction tore through the darkness. Patrizia blankly looked at Rosemond, who was staring at her with an incredulous expression, holding on to her cheek. She trembled in anger and glared as if she was going to kill Patrizia.

“You, you…!”

SLAP!

Patrizia did not hesitate and once again slammed her cheek. The cold voice was an added bonus.

“You are crazy, Rosemond. I guess since you became a mistress you have developed a mental illness as well.”

“What? You really…”

SLAP! It was the third punishment. Rosemond wrapped her cheek that had completely turned red with her hand. In the midst of that, she did not moan once. Patrizia asked her with a greatly lowered voice, “Are you really crazy, Rosemond? Makes sense, you did say you are from a low family. I understand that you did not receive a proper education from your home. But at least, shouldn’t you maintain your manners to the Moon and the Sun? This is something that even a 10-year-old child would know.”

“Who are you to talk about my family and my home education? Who are you to do that?!”

SLAP! Finally, blood flowed from her cheek. Patrizia’s white palm had blood on it, and Patrizia looked at it indifferently and then wiped it on her red dress without a second thought.

She didn’t wear a red dress for this reason, but it ended up being a dress that really suited today’s situation. She touched her hand and said, “You still don’t know who I am. This is serious, Rosemond. You need an education.”

“…”

“I’ll tell you once, so I hope you’ll listen carefully. I, Patrizia Leila Les Grochester, am the Empress of this Marvinus Empire, the real wife of the Emperor, His Majesty who you say you love, and who will become the mother of this country.”

“Ha, Mother… That’s not even fun-… ”

“To add on, you are.”

“… ”

“Rosemond Mary La Phelps is the Baroness of this Marvinus Empire, and the concubine of my husband, His Majesty. At the same time, you are the faithful servant of us as a couple, and so my servant. Do you know of this?”

“I don’t know, Your Majesty.”

Patrizia’s hand moved once again at those words, but this time, Rosemond wasn’t an easy victim this time. One hand grasped Patrizia’s thin wrist, while the other hand still covered her cheek that was covered with blood. She laughed crookedly and said to Patrizia, “I don’t know, Your Majesty. That I am your servant, and that you are the woman who will become the mother of this empire.”

“It’s all right, Rosemond. If your head is bad, you may not comprehend it. I understand. But don’t worry too much. These are things that you will gradually learn while you live your life.”

Patrizia took her hand off her wrist with her other hand, and this time, she swept down her injured cheek without any more hitting. Naturally, Rosemond refused and swat away her hand with a furious expression, but Patrizia calmly told her with an unaffected face.

“Even if you don’t want to know, you will get to know, so you won’t have to say more.”

“You are too confident, Your Majesty. What do you believe in to be behaving like this? What power does an Empress in name only have, when she can’t even earn His Majesty’s intimate favor?”

Those words weren’t wrong, and Patricia smiled and spoke. But Rosemond saw the anger hidden in the laughter, so she laughed even brighter.

That was a fact that even Empress Patrizia could not deny. But Rosemond’s smile soon disappeared.

“The Empress is not a concubine, Rosemond. As I said last time, you can take power even if you don’t roll yourself around cheaply like you. If all power had been concentrated on the Emperor’s discretion, this country would have already been destroyed.

“…”

“You too know that very well. Right?”

Damn, it was true. This country was not such an easy nation. At least, the Marvinus Empire was able to preserve its dynasty and maintain the form of the Empire for a long time, because of the fact that the elites like herself did not grab hold and wreck the country.

There was a limit to what the mistress could intervene with. The Marvinus Empire took precautions in considering the Emperor’s unrighteousness and gave the Empress the same powers as the Emperor, so the result was how it was now. Rosemond, darn it all, knew this better than anyone else. That’s why she was trying to be the Empress at any cost.

It was miserable to be a mistress who did not become an Empress. That may not be the case when the Emperor you had served was alive, but if the Emperor died and the next great Emperor was ready and the Empress was alive, the story would be completely different. Common sense meant there would hardly be anybody that looked kindly at a mistress who had taken over all the love from a dead husband.

“That’s why you created this situation today. Really rude, spiteful, vulgar … ”

Patrizia muttered this in a voice full of anger. It had been exactly four days before the banquet was held that she had learned of exactly what was going on. She didn’t know it would end up being this helpful to instruct them to look into the happenings at the mistress’ quarters.

When Patrizia found out about Rosemond’s conspiracy, she instructed Rafaella to let the chef know about it. To make sure to keep the beef that will be used on the day of the dinner at a secret, unknown location.

When she first learned about Rosemond’s schemes, she was shocked to say the least. It had been unexpected. Of course, she was expecting one day a decisive plan would be constructed in the hope of bringing her down, but she didn’t know how it would be planned out this quickly, and this boldly.

At least because she thought it was something that would happen a little bit later than now, she had been at ease. And now, Patrizia blamed herself for her ease and casual outlook. Couldn’t it have been a big deal at the end? It wasn’t just a problem that would end up just affecting herself. It was a matter that could have spread on to diplomatic problems.

And if she hadn’t noticed it, something more horrible than she had imagined would have taken place. Perhaps the alliance between the two countries would have been compromised. Once again, realizing the seriousness of the matter, she became more resentful.

As much as Patrizia felt the shock, her anger toward Rosemond deepened. She continued to speak in a lower than low voice.

“The mistresses of this country have committed all sorts of tricks to gain the Emperor’s love, but at least they hadn’t done anything to harm the country like you did, Rosemond. What kind of guts did you have to do this? It was a matter that could have affected diplomatic issues between the two countries.”

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about, Your Majesty.”

She suddenly changed her position. She had judged that the situation was now not in her favor. At the quick turn of events, an empty laugh escaped from Patrizia, and soon she talked to Rosemond with a cold face.

“Don’t think about getting over this so easily, Rosemond. Did you want to bring me down like that so much? Enough to pull this irrational number? Very scary person, you are.”

“If you know, just hand over that position over to me, Your Majesty. Then I have no reason to mess with you.”

“That would not do. As you know, dethronement in this country means death.”

There weren’t any noble terms for a dethroned Empress in this country. The dethronement was death. This meant that if you hadn’t committed enough sins to die, it would be difficult to be dethroned.

So Patrizia could never solve this situation as well as she had said. In a way, it was a pity. If she could only live with the noble post of having been called Empress, accepting her offer would not have been bad.

“So Rosemond, you give up. That way, at least when His Majesty passes on, I can help you avoid the worst circumstances. This is the best I can bestow upon you … ”

“Shut your mouth, Patrizia.”